


We're Not Alone

by FrozenOasis (VoidSpace)



Series: Helpless [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Crying, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Past Rape/Non-con, Rape Aftermath, Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2020-12-20 23:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21065042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoidSpace/pseuds/FrozenOasis
Summary: The aftermath for Connie and Steven after what Stevonnie suffered at the hands of Kevin.





	We're Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

> References to a Rape detailed in part one. It can be read alone.

When Connie started to walk away it snapped Steven out of his stupor. He scrambled to his feet and chased after. “Connie, wait!” He yelled, panting when he stopped behind her.   
  
She stopped on the sidewalk stiff, arms at her side, and not looking back at him.   
  
“Connie, we...we need--”, to talk. It was what he wanted to say, but what could they talk about?   
  
“What? To go to the police?” She turned and Steven winced at the coldness in her eyes.   
  
“No...maybe…” he whispered feeling guilt wash over him at the urge to take a step back.   
  
“What’s the point?” she asked cooly arms held tight around her center. “You heard him, you were there, we _didn’t_ even try to fight him!”   
  
“I-I didn’t...I don’t…”  
  
“Just shut up Steven, I don’t want to hear it,” she hissed and he stepped back shocked.   
  
“I’m sorry,” he said again tears dripping down her face.  
  
“I don’t want to hear you say that anymore…” she looked sad for a moment before turning away with a frown. “I’m leaving, don’t follow me, don’t call me Steven...I don't want to see you e-ever again.” She said before walking away.   
  
By the time Steven managed to numbly walk home, she was gone.   
  
“Steven is everything ok?” It was Pearl that asked as he entered the house.  
  
“Y-yeah...no,” he answered crying into his hand.   
  
“What’s the matter, Steven, what happened?” Pearl asked as she knelt in front of him and pulled him into a hug.  
  
He thought about telling her, telling her what Kevin had done to Stevonnie, how he hurt them. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it, not when he’d been so stupid, not when he'd been the one to suggest walking. He knew he was the reason they hadn’t been able to unfuse. He’d been too afraid to use his powers, the one thing that would have changed everything.  
  
“We-we had a fight,” he managed between tears and Pearl soothes him rubbing his back.  
  
“It’s going to be alright Steven, it’ll be fine,” she whispered, pulling him into a tight hug as he cried.   
  
-  
  
“Steven?” Pearl calls his name from below and he bristles as he’s pulled out of the memory.  
  
“Yeah?” He answers pulling his blanket further up his shoulder and tighter around himself.   
  
“I guess you haven’t talked to Connie yet?” she asks softly as she climbs the stairs  
  
“No,” Steven answers, his back facing her, with his face pressed against his pillow.   
  
“Well, if there is anything I can do to help let me know. I hate to see you two not getting along after everything,” she places a hand on his shoulder.   
  
“Thanks…” he whispers before turning to face her. “I’ll come get you first if I need help,” Steven adds with a smile.  
  
“Okay,” Pearl smiles back.   
  
She may not be completely convinced but she kisses him on the forehead and leaves. Steven turns onto his back and stares up at the ceiling. It’s been nearly a week since...since...he doesn’t want to think about it, doesn’t want to give it a name. It makes him want to vomit, makes him want to cry and run to Connie to beg for forgiveness. If it hadn’t been for him Stevonnie wouldn’t even have existed, they wouldn’t have been there. If Kevin had gone after them as two kids Connie would have been able to fight back. He wipes away the tears that drip down the side of his face and gets out of bed. He's been hiding all of these feelings inside, going through the motions on auto-pilot to keep his family from asking questions.   
  
“Steven,” Garnet says his name and he looks at her standing in front of the gem door she just exited from.  
  
“Yeah?” he says pushing lightheartedness into his voice.   
  
“Is everything alright?” She asks.   
  
“Yeah...I’m going to take a shower,” he answers. “I’m fine.”   
  
She nods and he walks into the bathroom without another word. He turns on the shower and bites his lip as tears drip down his cheek, he just wants to be alone right now.  
  
-  
  
“Connie,” Mrs. Maheswaran says her name through the door with a knock.  
  
“Yes?” Connie looks over at her room door, her homework is covering the desk she's sitting in front of.   
  
“Please come downstairs, we need to have a talk," her mom says.  
  
"Okay, just one second."  
  
"We'll be waiting," her mom says and Connie listens as she walks down the stairs.   
  
Connie does one more problem before she gets up and exits her room. She walks down the stairs her mind on her homework. Her face passive and her movements almost robotic as she reaches the last step.   
  
“Please, sit down,” her mom says gently and she looks over at her father sitting at the couch.  
  
She nods and sits down. “What is it?” she asks sounding annoyed.   
  
“Watch your tone young lady,” her mom chides.  
  
“Priyanka,” her dad’s voice is strained.  
  
“Sorry,” she says looking apologetic before she sighs and Connie looks at the concern on her face apathetically.  
  
“Connie, please talk to us. You’ve been acting strange these last few days, we’re just worried about you.” Doug starts next to her.   
  
“What am I doing?” She asks guarded.   
  
“You’ve stopped visiting with your new friend, you've been focusing completely on school work. You haven’t even taken a break or done any extracurricular activities for fun. This isn’t like you, Connie”   
  
“So, isn’t that good? I’m not distracted and I’m doing good in school,” she says.   
  
“But we see that you’re not happy Connie. You were so happy after we met Stevens family and said you could visit him and now you haven’t asked to go once since the last time you visited. Did you two have a fight Connie?” her mom asks.  
  
A burst of white-hot anger seems to rip through her at the mention of his name. “What does it matter?” She asks holding back the angry remarks she feels inside her.  
  
“Connie, I noticed you were acting strange when I picked you up. But now you’re acting so out-of-character, you know you can trust us if something happened-”  
  
“Nothing happened to me, dad! I’m fine, we had an argument and now I don’t want to talk about him.” She hisses her body wound so tight that her muscles hurt. What she says is true, nothing happened to her, it was Stevonnie, not her. It was them, it was Steven, her trusting nature and dumb wanderlust over being a fusion. All things that her parents didn’t know about and she doubted could even understand.  
  
“Are you sure Connie?” her mom asks sounding apprehensive.  
  
Connie closes her eyes and sighs deeply willing her heart rate to slow down. They weren’t there, she had no reason to be angry with them. There was no way they could have known.   
  
“Yeah,” she finally says putting an effort into sounding like her old self. “I’m sure, I just want to forget about it and work. I’m sorry about acting weird.” She watches the way their concerned looks morph into relief and resents them for a moment.  
  
“Thank you for telling us Connie, but if this goes on for too much longer, we’ll have to call Steven’s parents. Please see if you can work it out with him on your own. Adults go through arguments too, we have just as hard a time moving on but I promise you it’ll be worth it in the end,” her mom says and she nods forcing herself to smile.  
  
“I will...thanks, Mom, Dad. I’ll work on it,” she says not sure if she really means it. She lets them hug her and smiles as she walks back up the stairs.   
  
It isn’t until she’s in her room does the anger she’s been holding it surfaces. Connie walks to her bed and punches her fist into her pillow before crawling into her bed. She presses her face into a pillow and screams. She doesn’t want to see Steven again, she doesn’t want to talk about any of it, all she wants is to move on, to let enough time pass that it’s a distant memory when she’s older. She wishes that her parents had never met his family, wishes she could tell Garnet to listen to Pearl. Because she doesn’t want to go back, she _never_ wants to go back there, to see him. The thought of seeing Steven again makes her so angry. She’s crying without any tears and she's sure she’s broken in a way that Steven can never fix.   
  
Connie dryly sobs into her pillow, subconsciously knowing that she can’t live this way. She hasn’t been able to sleep for more than a few minutes, she has to force herself to eat, and all she can think about is school without feeling like she’s going crazy. She almost doesn’t want to live at all, but then she can’t imagine what her parents would do if--she stops her train of thought. She wipes her damp eyes and gets out of bed, she sits down at her desk and starts studying again. Hours go by until her mom is knocking on the door.  
  
“Connie it’s time for bed. I’m heading to work tonight, but if you need anything your dad is here...you can call me too, okay?”  
  
“Okay mom, thanks,” she answers making a conscious effort to sound fine.   
  
“You’re welcome, goodnight Connie. I love you.”  
  
“Goodnight, mom… I love you too.” Connie waits until her mom leaves to go to the restroom. She takes a scalding hot shower and doesn’t wipe the steam away from the mirror when she’s brushing her teeth.   
  
She tells her dad goodnight and when she gets into bed she’s exhausted. Her eyes feel heavy just like she’s grown used to and she falls asleep for a few minutes at a time. After waking up a few times from her memories of Stevonnie she hears the reassuring words from her parents in her mind. She falls asleep again and this time she doesn’t wake up.   
  
She cold, alone, and there’s an unending sea of unrelenting darkness that surrounds her at every turn. Connie looks around trying to find something to focus on.   
  
“Hello!” She calls walking towards nothing.   
  
She stops in tracks when she sees someone kneeling down and then keeps walking. Connie reaches them...him, she thinks and the figure takes on a clearer form and she sees that it’s Steven. His back is to her and he seems smaller than she remembers.   
  
“Steven?” She says his name but it doesn’t feel like she’s moved her mouth.  
  
“Connie?” Steven looks back eyes wide and wet with tears. “Connie, is that you?” He asks sounding gutted and broken  
  
“I think so…”  
  
“I’m so sorry Connie, it’s my fault, I was so scared, I couldn’t think, I’d never thought anything like that could happen, please,” he begs turning to face her but not looking up. She can’t see his features but she can’t look away from the puddle of tears surrounding him. “I-I’m…so, so...sorry, Connie, I’m sorry,” he mumbles repeating the words over and over.   
  
The cold anger that she’s grown familiar with wants to take over, but he's so heartbroken, so distraught that she doesn’t see why she’s angry with him. Connie thinks about all the time they’ve spent together being happy and having fun. She drops to her knees feeling the anger seep away and in its place, a bloom of all-encompassing heartache takes over. She pulls Steven into her arms and hugs him so tight that she loses sense of her body.   
  
“I’m sorry,” she says, “I’m sorry I left you.”  
  
She opens her eyes, except she’s not there and they’re Stevonnie. “Please, please don’t hurt yourselves, please.” They beg and then she’s holding onto Steven again.   
  
“Is this real?” She asks.  
  
“I don’t know,” Steven loosens his grip and looks into her eyes and she can see the pain in them. “I think so,” he finally says sniffling.   
  
“I’ll come and see you, on Saturday,” she promises and he smiles sadly.   
  
“I miss you,” he says and Connie smiles before pulling him back into the hug.   
  
“I miss you too,” she whispers.  
  
She wakes up to the sound of her alarm with fresh tears dripping from her eyes.   
  
-  
  
How could she tell her parents when they had no clue about any of this? When she wasn’t even sure how it all worked either?   
  
Connie didn’t know, but she knows that she has to see Steven. She knocks on the door and stares down at her feet as she listens to someone walking to the door. She looks up when it opens and it’s Steven, he looks tired and sad. His eyes are tinged red but he also looks hopeful with a timid smile on his lips.   
  
"Connie," he says her name with such relief that she feels some of her own tension ebb away.  
  
"Hey," she says as she walks into his house. She looks around the room, it's all the same as before. She stops and turns to look at Steven still standing at the door.  
  
"Steven…" he looks up at her close to tears already. She realizes the last time they'd seen each other she was angry at him, she’d apologized in the dream but now it was real and she knew saying it again would go a long way. "I'm not mad at you Steven," she says before walking back to him and pulling him into a real hug.  
  
Steven grips onto her his shoulders shaking as they cry in each other's arms.  
  
She reluctantly loosens her hold body feeling exhausted after a few minutes of them just crying. Steven looks at her with understanding and they move to the couch. They sit next to each other legs crossed on the couch as the face each other.   
  
"I'm glad you're really here Connie," he says.   
  
"I’m glad you reached out to me. Did you know you could do that?" She asks pushing off the conversation they need to have.  
  
"No…that was the first time that ever happened."   
  
"It's an amazing power," she knows that if it hadn't been for Steven's power she'd still be angry in her room. "I'm glad that I got to see you again and not feel that anger..." If he'd just called she would have hung up, if he'd shown up she would have been furious, but in her dream, she'd been able to understand him.  
  
"Me too,” Steven says and they sit in silence for a moment.  
  
"It feels like I'm half a person sometimes," Steven says breaking it. "It's like I'm missing other things I'm supposed to feel about what happened."   
  
"I think...I think when Stevonnie separated it took something from us. Because it wasn't you or me it was us. I feel like that too Steven...I don't think we can do this by talking to each other." She says dreading the idea of telling her parents, the gems, and Steven’s dad but knowing that they need to.  
  
"I know you're right, but I'm scared," Steven admits.   
  
"I am too Steven, but I think us and Stevonnie will be in so much more pain if we don't fuse I don't... I don't think we'll be able to move forward like this.”  
  
Steven nods and grasps Connie's hand in his own, "Let’s help Stevonnie." He says and she nods as his gem glows between them. There is no need to dance for this fusion and they know that. This is important, this is for both of them, for Stevonnie.  
  
Stevonnie's arms are folded in front of them and they sit there for a moment. They think about the emotions they're feeling the time before that. Stevonnie shudders pushing the memories back but staying aware of them. Stevonnie needs to tell their family what happened. Stevonnie picks up Steven’s phone from the coffee table and they text his dad first.   
  
There’s something important I need to tell you Dad. Can you come here?   
  
Stevonnie sends one to Connie’s mom and dad, then to each of the gems. It’s not that Steven or Connie wants to tell their parents this way but it felt like the only way they could do it. Stevonnie hopes that everyone will be understanding and that it will go smoothly.  
  
"Hey uh...miss, did you happen to see my son?" Greg asks as he walks in.   
  
Stevonnie looks over at him. "I wish you didn't have to meet me this way Mr. Universe...dad…"  
  
Greg stares at them clearly shocked as the Warp pad lights up and all the gems appear in the room.  
  
"Steven a…oh hello Greg," Pearl says before noticing them. "Steven...Connie I--"  
  
"It's my favorite fusion Stevonnie!" Amethyst announces walking over to them with a grin.  
  
Garnet steps in front of her arm drawn out, "Wait, Amethyst."   
  
"Huh, what gives?" She asks looking up at Garnet then back to Stevonnie  
  
"Um…are you? Steven and his friend Connie?" Greg asks them.   
  
They nod nerves eating away at the pit of their stomach. There's a knock on the door and they all turn to Connie's parents standing at the door.  
  
Greg turns and pushes open the door. "Hi um...Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran."   
  
Connie's mom walks in and she looks around eyes going right past them. "Where's Connie? Steven sent me a message…" She looks back at them. "Who are you?"   
  
Stevonnie heart races and they take a deep breath opening their mouth to speak. Nothing comes out though and they're all watching and they feel any confidence they had draining away.   
  
"Hello there, I know this must be very strange," Pearl says giving them time to recenter.  
  
"I didn't even know it was possible…" Greg mumbles.  
  
Priyanka looks at him, "didn't know what?" She asks.  
  
"It's called fusion, remember how we were all one entity when we first met?" Pearl asks nervously and Priyanka and Doug nod slowly.   
  
"Well this is Stevonnie, she's fused with Steven," Pearl says.  
  
"Is this some kind of joke? Where is Connie?" She asks voice serious.  
  
"Mrs. Maheswaran," Stevonnie starts and everyone turns to look at them again. "I am Connie and Steven, I know it's strange and I didn't want you to know I'm--"  
  
"No no no, I wasn't born yesterday, everyone needs to stop fooling around and--"  
  
"Priyanka," Doug cuts her offsetting a hand on her shoulder.   
  
"Please don't tell me you believe this...this nonsense," she says a lost expression on her face.   
  
"Look...look at her," he implores and she turns her gaze back to them.   
  
Her hair, eyes, nose, skin tone it's all there but mixed with Steven's it's…  
  
"You...you need to undo this it's--"  
  
"I can't, not right now,"   
  
"But--"   
  
"Mrs. ...mom I have something important I need to say, something that they couldn't do separated.” Their voice cracks at the end of the sentence.   
  
"What is it, what’s wrong?" Priyanka asks softly.   
  
"I...I…"  
  
Garnet moves then walking over to their side and sitting down next to them. She places a hand on their shoulder and it's silent for several seconds.   
  
"When...when I first fused I went out…" Stevonnie starts looking down at their hands. "I went to a-a rave and then some guy...Kevin" they take a few more breaths feeling the edges of overwhelming sadness close to spilling over. "We decided to leave to go for a walk a-and he followed me, we...he-" their words are cut off by a choked sob.   
  
"Oh Stevonnie, I'm so sorry," Garnet whispers and they look up at her and see tears dripping down her face. It looks like she already knows what they're going to say.  
  
Stevonnie takes a deep breath as says it. "He raped me.” Garnet pulls them into a tight hug and they lose all sense of composure.  
  
Everyone is frozen, eyes wide as they all take it what Stevonnie has said. Amethyst is looking down at the floor and Pearl is trembling her hands over her mouth.   
  
"Oh God, I…" Greg starts breaking the overwhelming stillness in the room. He walks over to the couch and sits down near Stevonnie placing a hand on their back.   
  
Connie’s parents, Pearl and Amethyst all draw closer.   
  
“We’re here for you Stevonnie,” Amethyst says struggling to keep her voice from breaking.  
  
"We'll help you however we can," Pearl adds tearfully.  
  
"I don't know how this happened but I promise-" Priyanka kneels down in front of them. "I promise we'll help you any way we can." She says and Stevonnie turns to look at Connie's mom and up at the genuinely concerned and loving face of her dad.   
  
Garnet hugs them tight once more before letting go and Stevonnie hugs all three of their parents. Steven’s dad, Connie’s parents hold them tight and they cry in their loving embrace.   
  
This is only the beginning but with Connie’s and Steven’s family by their side, they know that they'll make it through this.   


**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't leave them without an ending that was more hopeful.


End file.
